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LIBRARY 


The  Melati<0)nship  of  the 

Lawyer  to  the  People 

AN   ADDRESS 

BEFORE  THE  TWENTY-FIFTH   ANNUAL 

CONVENTION   OF  THE 

Washington 

State  Bar  Association 

SEATTLE 

AUGUST   7-8,  1913 

BY 

RT.  REV.  FREDERICK  W.  KEATOR 

TACOMA,  WASH. 

THE     WASHINGTON     STANDARD      l|JX'lTb».      OLYMP1A.     WASHINGTON 

r 


THE  RELATIONSHIP  OF  THE  LAWYER  TO  THE  PEOPLE. 
LEADERSHIP  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  TIMES. 


RT.    REV.    FREDERIC    W.    KEATOR,    BISHOP    OF    OLYMPIA. 

In  a  recent  number  of  one  of  our  leading  magazines  there  was  a 
notable  and  interesting  article  from  the  pen  of  a  distinguished  mem- 
ber of  the  medical  profession,  entitled  "Lawyer  and  Physician — a  Con- 
trast." The  opening  sentences  of  the  article  were  these:  "Every 
lawyer  when  young  should  be  apprenticed  to  some  good  physician  and 
should  return  to  him  regularly  through  life.  Then  we  might  hope  that 
from  the  neighboring  profession  of  healing  there  might  enter  into  him 
a  spirit  never  to  be  wholly  quenehed  by  all  the  deadening  influences 
of  his  work." 

It  would  be  presumptious  to  assume  that  in  asking  me  to  address 
this  Association  of  Lawyers,  your  committee,  mindful  of  "the  present 
distress"  had  the  notion  that,  the  legal  profession  being  already  past 
the  help  of  doctors,  it  might  be  timely  to  claim  the  "benefit  of  clergy"; 
but  I  think  I  may  fairly  assume  that  being  cognizant  of  the  fact  that 
I  was  trained  for  the  Bar,  was  admitted  to  practice  law,  for  a  time 
engaged  in  that  practice,  and  then  through  force  of  circumstances,  un- 
necessary to  state  here,  was  persuaded  to  abandon  the  practice  and 
take  up  preaching,  your  committee  felt  that  it  might  be  worth  while 
to  indulge  in  an  innovation  and  give  a  little  place  on  your  program 
to  one  who  having  still,  in  some  measure,  your  point  of  view,  might 
also  be  able  to  look  upon  life  and  the  various  movements  which  are 
going  on  from  a  somewhat  different  angle. 

It  is  my  fervent  desire  and  will  be  my  earnest  aim  to  justify  the 
decision  of  your  committee.  If  I  shall  fail  to  do  so,  it  will  be  com- 
petent for  any  one  of  you,  at  any  time,  to  require  me  to  show  cause 
why  I  should  be  allowed  to  proceed  further. 

In  the  invitation  which  came  to  me  all  unexpectedly,  the  subject 
suggested  was  "The  Relation  of  the  Lawyer  to  the  Public."  Advised  at 
the  same  time,  however,  that  this  was  only  a  suggestion,  it  seems  better 
to  limit  what  I  shall  have  to  say  to  what  we  may  regard  as  a  particular 
phase  of  it,  and  this  even  at  some  risk  of  only  heightening  the  contrast 
between  preaching  and  practice.  As  bearing,  then,  upon  the  general 
subject  of  the  relation  of  the  lawyer  to  the  people,  I  purpose  to  speak 
particularly  of  "Leadership — the  Real  Need  of  the  Times." 

If  it  shall  appear  that  my  special  aim  is  to  bring  home  this  need  to 
you  lawyers,  it  is  only  because  through  your  courtesy  I  am  speaking 
to  you  today,  and  not  because  I  think  it  applies  more  especially  to  you 
than  to  the  members  of  the  other  learned  profession,  or  than  to  all 
good  men  and  true  in  every  walk  and  calling  in  life.  The  fact  is,  we 
are  all  bound  together  in  relationships  and  responsibilities  which  no 
differences  or  specializations  can  obliterate  or  destroy.    The  duty  owed 


Relationship  of  Lawyer  to  People 


to  society  at  large  is  a  duty  common  to  all  members  of  society.  We 
only  differ  in  the  ways  and  means  through  which  that  duty  is  fulfilled 
and  discharged. 

It  is  one  of  the  complace  of  history,  I  take  it,  that  every  age  is 
apt  to  regard  itself  as  a  critical  time — an  age  of  transition.  We  have 
all  of  us  lived  long  enough  to  have  heard  this  claim  for  our  own  time 
made  over  and  over  again,  and  looking  far  back  beyond  our  own  times 
to  those  we  used  to  read  about  when  we  were  studying  the  old  classics, 
1  doubt  not  many  will  recall  the  old  familiar  words,  "Tempora  mutan- 
tur  et  mutamur  in  illis"  The  fact  is,  this  description  of  the  times  was 
true  in  the  long  ago,  has  been  true  ever  since;  is  true  now  and  will 
continue  to  be  true  with  an  ever  growing  and  expanding  meaning  just 
because  our  knowledge  of  the  truth  is  always  growing  and  expanding. 
But  however  we  may  compare  or  contrast  the  time  in  which  we  are 
living  with  other  times,  every  thinking  man  is  bound  to  acknowledge 
that  the  changes  now  going  on  around  us  are  different  in  quality  if  not 
in  quantity  from  those  which  any  other  times,  at  least  within  our  ex- 
perience, have  witnessed.  There  is  a  widespread  unrest.  There  is  a 
constantly  growing  demand  for  change.  There  is  an  over-abundance 
of  criticism  everywhere  involving  pretty  much  everybody  and  every- 
thing. In  short,  it  would  seem  as  though  society  generally  were  under- 
taking the  task  of  looking  itself  over,  making  careful  examination  of 
the  very  foundations,  taking  stock  of  the  materials  which  have  entered 
into  its  upbuilding;  questioning  all  its  old  practice,  customs,  methods 
and  motives,  and  all  this  as  though  it  were  getting  ready  to  undertake 
a  reconstruction. 

Try  as  we  may  to  quiet  our  fears  with  the  reflection  that  this  sort 
of  thing  has  always  been  going  on,  or  at  least  has  happened  over  and 
over  again,  we  cannot  altogether  get  away  from  the  fact  that  while  this 
is  so,  it  is  so  now  with  a  difference. 

Two  of  our  leading  professions,  yours  and  mine,  if  I  may  venture 
to  class  them  together,  are  being  forced  to  trial.  So  far  as  the  Min- 
istry is  concerned  the  indictment  charges  that  it  is  very  much  out  of 
touch  with  the  life  of  the  present  day,  and  while  I,  as  a  humble  repre- 
sentative of  it,  am  not  willing  to  plead  guilty,  I  am  bound  to  realize 
that  there  is  a  lot  of  evidence  to  be  overcome.  And  as  for  the  charge 
against  the  lawyers — well,  perhaps  it  has  been  expressed  rather  suc- 
cintly,  not  to  say  wittily,  in  the  saying,  "Society  always  was  preju- 
diced against  the  lawyers,  and  now  finds  its  prejudice  justified." 

The  ground  of  this  prejudice,  if  I  mistake  not,  is  generally  found  in 
the  ultra-conservatism  which  is  supposed  to  characterize  the  legal  pro- 
fession. Lawyers,  as  a  class,  it  is  said,  are  so  tied  down  by  precedents, 
and  bound  tight  by  technicalities,  that  they  cannot  get  themselves  free 
and  advance  with  the  times.  This  is  the  real  secret  of  that  "deadening 
influence"  spoken  of  by  the  learned  author  of  the  "Contrast  Between 
Lawyers  and  Physicians,"  from  which   I  quoted  in  beginning,  whose 


Rt.  Rev.  Frederick  W.  Keator 


sure  cure  he  would  find  in  sending  every  young  lawyer  to  a  good  phy- 
sician, to  the  end  that  in  his  presence  and  through  the  power  of  his 
example,  he  might  learn  to  look  forward,  by  forgetting  to  look  back- 
ward. For  in  his  opinion  lawyers  and  physicians  really  face  in  oppo- 
site directions,  and  while  the  one  profession  is  constantly  advancing, 
nay  more  is  leading  the  advance,  the  other  is  so  constantly  holding 
back  that  "the  inertia  becomes  almost  our  despair."  Indeed,  so  marked 
has  the  contrast  become  that  he  can  only  express  it  by  saying  that,  "Of 
two  Rip  Van  Winkles  awakening  today,  the  physician  would  find  his 
old  methods  as  rust-eaten  and  useless  as  his  instruments;  the  lawyer 
after  a  few  hours  with  new  statutes  would  feel  at  home  in  any  of  our 
courts." 

Personally,  I  have  no  doubt  but  that  there  is  another  side  to  all 
this,  as  many  of  you  lawyers  could  tell  out  of  your  own  experience  with 
this  same  medical  profession — experience  gained  not  only  in  their  of- 
fices or  surgeries,  but  in  many  a  courtroom  where  you  have  seen  them 
and  known  them  as  expert  witnesses;  and  I  recall,  too,  that  something 
like  the  millenium  will  come  only  when  according  to  Dr.  Oliver  Wen- 
dell Holmes,  "Doctors  shall  give  what  they  would  take,"  as  well  as 
"Lawyers  take  what  they  would  give." 

But  to  come  back  to  the  subject  of  conservatism,  especially  in  its 
bearing  upon  the  changes  which  the  times  are  demanding — out  of  which 
springs  and  grows  the  prejudice  against  lawyers — it  is  certainly  worth 
while  to  insist  that  if  it  has  a  bad  side,  it  has  also  a  good  side,  and  to 
insist  further  that  the  real  need  of  the  times  is  so  to  correct  and  im- 
prove the  one  as  not  to  maim  or  destroy  the  other.  The  whole  history 
of  society,  it  has  been  truly  said,  has  been  the  history  of  (he  struggle 
for  law,  the  establishment  of  those  relationships  in  which  men,  both 
individually  and  collectively,  might  live  their  lives  and  carry  on  their 
work,  protecting  and  insuring  their  best  interests,  both  private  and 
public.  For  as  one  has  well  stated  it,  "the  law  is  simply  that  part  of 
the  established  thought  of  men  which  has  been  accorded  general  ac- 
ceptance, backed  and  sanctioned  by  the  authority  of  a  regularly  con- 
stituted government."  It  is  therefore  obvious  that  the  conservative 
habit  is  natural  to  the  law  and  to  whomsoever  and  whatsoever  has  to 
do  with  the  law.  It  is  based  upon  experience  which  is  always  in  the 
past,  and  in  the  very  nature  of  things  the  lawyer  cannot  rush  after 
and  take  up  with  every  new  discovery  of  natural  science  which  is  the 
basis  of  the  boasted  leadership  and  progressiveness  of  the  men  of  the 
medical  profession. 

Even  the  learned  author  of  the  "Contrast,"  to  which  reference  has 
been  made,  appreciates  this  marked  difference  between  the  two  pro- 
fessions in  this  regard,  for  he  admits  that  "the  conservatism  of  the 
lawyer  comes  in  part  from  the  contagion  of  the  law.  For  the  law 
represents  the  stability,  the  habit  of  our  social  life,  as  against  creative, 
reformatory  energy.     We  must  not  deny  the  value  of  this  trait.     His 


Relationship  of  Lawyer  to  People 


is  the  virtue — and  the  vice — that  lies  in  habit.  Here,  as  with  each  of 
us  personally,  habit  is  indispensable  even  though  It  calls  forth  no  en- 
thusiasm. Though  it  does  not  drive  us  forward  and  too  often  binds,  yet 
we  should  not  advance  without  it,  for  the  gain  once  made  would  slip 
away."  It  is  not  the  conservatism  of  the  law  or  the  lawyer,  per  se, 
which  is  at  fault.  If  wrong  comes  from  it,  it  can  only  be  because  the 
conservative  habit  is  pushed  too  far,  or  is  used  for  wrong  ends. 

In  spite  of  all  the  prejudice  against  the  profession,  the  people  of 
this  nation  at  least  should  not  forget,  indeed  they  should  never  be 
allowed  to  forget,  the  debt  which  the  American  people  owe  to  American 
lawyers.  It  was  they  who  founded  this  nation,  and  in  large  part  it  is 
they  who  have  governed  and  guided  it.  For  the  first  hundred  years  of 
our  national  history,  so  great  was  the  predominance  of  lawyers  in  the 
control  of  political  affairs  that  it  has  been  aptly  called  "unprecedented," 
since  "no  other  great  people  either  in  classic,  medieval  or  modern 
times  has  ever  allowed  such  a  professional  monopoly  of  governmental 
functions." 

The  explanation  of  it  seems  clear  enough.  It  was  because  this 
nation  was  founded  upon  law,  and  from  the  first  was  destined  to  be  a 
government  by  law.  Because  its  political  status  was  imbedded  in  a 
written  constitution,  every  question  of  policy  sooner  or  later  became  a 
question  of  law.  It  has  been  said  that  up  to  the  time  of  the  Civil  War 
"the  very  platform  of  political  parties  centered  on  questions  of  legal 
interpretation"  and  lawyers  became  of  very  necessity  the  guiding  states- 
men. Furthermore,  "the  importance  of  lawyers  as  legislators  and  ex- 
ecutives in  the  actual  work  of  American  government  has  been  an  in- 
direct consequence  of  the  peculiar  function  of  the  Supreme  Court  in 
the  American  political  system."  As  one  reads  the  earlier  history  of 
this  nation  and  recalls  the  great  names,  so  closely  identified  with  the 
establishing  of  great  principles  and  with  the  shaping  of  great  policies, 
he  cannot  help  exclaiming,  "there  were  giants  in  those  days!" 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  when  we  review  the  entire  history  of  this 
nation  down  to  our  own  times,  may  we  not,  nay,  must  we  not  dis- 
tinguish different  periods  or  stages  in  that  history?  Classing  as  one 
period  the  time  down  to  the  Civil  War,  we  may  call  it  the  political 
period.  During  that  period  the  nation  was,  as  it  were,  finding  itself, 
and  the  characteristic  of  it  was  government  by  law,  which  really  meant 
by  lawyers,  since  they  were  foremost  in  shaping  and  guiding  its  poli- 
cies. It  was  well  that  it  should  have  been  so,  for  no  other  system  or 
method  could  have  been  better  suited  to  this  country  of  ours,  as  we 
know  it  and  love  it,  in  its  young  and  formative  years.  And  because 
the  foundations  were  fixed  so  deep  and  strong,  and  the  beginning  of  its 
walls  so  well  and  truly  laid,  we  may  indulge  the  hope  that  future  gen- 
erations shall  long  continue  to  share  the  blessings  and  the  benefits  of 
it  all. 

Aftpr  thp  Civil  War  we  entered  upon  a  new  period  which  may  be 


Rt.  Rev.  Frederick  W.  Keator 


called  the  economic  period.  Instead  of  questions  of  government,  ques- 
tions of  business  came  to  the  front.  The  vast  domain  of  the  country 
began  to  be  opened  up  for  settlement,  and  us  vast  natural  resource* 
began  to  be  opened  up  for  exploitation  and  development.  All  these 
lines  of  development,  ever  extending  and  widening,  soon  began  to  be 
so  crossed  and  interlaced,  that  in  fact  a  new  nation  was  created  and 
came  into  being.  With  all  the  changes  which  followed  in  the  train 
none  were  more  marked  or  more  significant  than  those  which  affected 
the  individual.  The  individual  was  no  longer  equal  to  the  task  of  deal- 
ing with  the  mighty  forces  at  play,  the  vast  opportunities  constantly 
opening  up,  and  so  there  came  to  pass  the  combination  of  individuals 
into  the  corporation,  created  by  law  and  endowed  with  all  the  powers 
and  privileges  of  an  individual,  and  in  addition  with  some  which  the 
individual  did  not  possess,  e.  g..  a  certain  perpetuity  of  existence  and 
power. 

Through  all  these  changes  the  constant  effort  was  to  make  the  old 
law  fit  the  new  facts  and  conditions,  an  effort  which  while  oftentimes 
clever  enough  apparently  was  not  altogether  satisfactory,  at  least  to 
the  people  as  a  whole  who  sometimes  felt,  and  I  think  we  must  in  al! 
fairness  say  justly  felt,  that  somehow  the  advantage  was  all  in  favor 
of  the  few  and  against  the  many. 

But  even  this  combination  of  individuals  into  corporations  was  not 
sufficient  to  meet  the  growing  needs  of  "big  business,"  and  so  we  began 
to  witness  the  further  combination  of  corporations — and  the  trust  was 
the  new  creation.  This  in  its  turn  was  under  the  form  of  law,  but  just 
as  this  combination  was  greater  and  mightier,  so  the  problem  of  making 
the  law  square  with  the  new  facts  and  conditions  were  more  complex 
and  vastly  more  difficult  even  if  they  developed  in  those  who  came  to 
be  known  as  the  "corporation  lawyers,"  the  wit  and  the  skill  to  tread 
the  mazes  of  all  the  complexity,  and  find  the  way  out  of  all  the  dif- 
ficulties. 

All  this  is  familiar  enough  to  be  commonplace,  but  I  ask  you  to 
bear  patiently  with  me  a  little  longer  on  this  point,  as  I  endeavor  to 
discover  the  effect  of  all  this  on  the  legal  profession,  as  seen  by  the 
people  at  least,  if  not  realized  by  the  profession  itself. 

Would  it  be  putting  it  too  strongly,  if  I  make  bold  to  say  that  this 
effect  may  be  expressed  shortly  in  this  wise — that  the  law  has  ceased 
to  be  a  profession — and  has  become  a  business?  Perhaps  my  own  ex- 
perience is  utterly  insufficient,  not  tc  say  irrelevant  and  immaterial,  as 
evidence  on  this  point,  yet  I  cannot  but  recall  the  strange  disillusion- 
ment which  came  over  me  when  after  a  careful  and  painstaking  course 
of  study  in  the  law,  pursued  with  abundant  diligence  and  increasing 
admiration,  I  entered  upon  the  practice  of  what  I  confidently  believed 
would  be  my  life  profession,  only  to  find  that  it  was  not  a  profession 
at  all,  but  only  a  business,  and  a  pretty  poor  one  at  that.  And  my  per- 
plexity was  not  lessened,  when  one  who  had  had  sufficient  experience 


Relationship  of  Lawyer  to  People 


to  have  taken  him  quite  beyond  the  drudgery  which  pertains  to  the 
mere  novice,  said  to  me  in  tones  which  expressed  his  very  soul:  "Yes, 
the  law  is  a  beautiful  theory — but  it's  a  poor  practice." 

Whether  any  of  you  have  had  a  like  experience,  I  know  not;  and 
whether  our  individual  experience  would  prove  it  or  not,  of  this  I 
am  persuaded,  that  the  people  generally  have  taken  judicial  notice  of 
the  fact,  that  lawyers  no  longer  practice  law  in  the  general  interests 
of  society,  as  guardians  of  the  public  peace,  protectors  of  the  rights 
and  liberties  of  the  people,  and  guides  for  the  general  good.  Rather 
they  see  them  as  promoters  of  strife,  defenders  of  special  privileges, 
and  counselors  for  private  interests.  Whether  we  like  it  or  not,  I 
venture  to  say  that  if  the  question  were  put  up  to  the  people  generally, 
"Who  is  the  most  distrusted  man  in  society  today?"  the  great  major- 
ity of  the  answers  would  be  "the  corporation  lawyer,"  and  this  just 
because  they  regard  him  as  in  league  with  interests  which  they,  rightly 
or  wrongly,  regard  as  opposed  to  their  interests,  and  as  wholly  given 
over  to  selfish  aims  and  methods,  no  matter  what  his  private  character 
may  be. 

In  an  address  before  the  American  Bar  Association  some  two  or 
three  years  since,  Woodrow  Wilson,  now  president  of  the  United  States, 
said  of  the  effect  of  the  modern  business  system  on  the  legal  profes- 
sion: "A  new  type  of  lawyer  has  been  created,  for  he  nas  been  sucked 
into  the  maelstrom  of  the  new  business  system.  He  no  longer  prac- 
tices law,  nor  handles  the  general  interests  of  society.  He  is  now  a 
specialist.  So  society  has  lost  something  very  serious  to  lose  in  an 
age  when  society  depends  more  than  ever  on  the  lawyers,  and  on  the 
courts,  for  harmony  and  co-ordination  of  its  parts.  In  being  drawn 
into  business,  instead  of  standing  outside  of  it,  in  becoming  identified 
with  particular  interests,  instead  of  advising  all  interests,  the  lawyer 
is  looked  at  askance,  and  is  no  longer  regarded  as  a  mediator  of 
progress.  Society  always  was  prejudiced  against  them  and  is  now  find- 
ing its  prejudice  justified."     And  there  you  are! 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  indulge  in  a  discussion  of  modern  business, 
its  methods  and  its  results.  I  would  not  consider  myself  competent  to 
do  so,  even  had  I  the  inclination.  What  I  desire  to  discuss  next  is  the 
new  era  upon  whose  threshold  we  are  already  standing,  which  may  be 
called  the  "social  era." 

There  is  no  use  in  trying  to  disguise  the  fact,  and  still  more  is  it 
useless  to  raise  the  cries  of  "Stand  pat,"  "Let  well  enough  alone,"  "We 
don't  need  any  more  law,  but  simply  to  enforce  what  we  already  have." 
A  new  and  mighty  movement  has  already  begun,  and  we  have  only  to 
listen  to  hear  its  rustlings.  We  see  it  in  its  beginnings;  no  man  knows 
how  long  it  shall  continue  or  how  far  it  shall  go.  Its  unquestioned 
aim  is  the  reconstruction  of  society. 

Concerning  its  present  temper,  one  has  summed  it  all  up  in  these 
•vnrfin,  "There  are  certain  things  we  must  do.     Our  life  as  a  nation 


Rt.  Rev.  Frederick  W.  Keator 


must  be  rectified  in  certain  all-important  particulars.  If  there  be  no 
law  for  the  change  it  must  be  found  or  made.  We  will  not  be  argued 
into  impotency  by  lawyers.  We  are  not  interested  in  the  structure  of 
our  government  so  much  as  in  the  exigencies  of  our  life.  Life  does 
not  center  now  upon  questions  of  governmental  structure,  but  upon 
economic  questions,  upon  questions  of  the  very  structure  and  operation 
of  society,  of  which  government  is  only  the  instrument." 

If  we  want  to  know  whether  this  summary  is  true  to  the  facts,  all 
we  have  to  do  is  to  notice  and  to  read  the  many  strong  books  which  are 
being  issued  nowadays,  and  which  many  people  are  reading  and  pon- 
dering over.  It  is  no  longer  merely  a  matter  of  the  muck-raking  maga- 
zine, or  the  yellow  journal.  The  concluding  phrase  of  this  summing 
up  which  speaks  of  government  as  the  instrument  of  society,  is  one 
which  should  appeal  to  us  as  full  of  hope  and  encouragement.  For  one, 
I  am  optimistic  enough  to  believe  that  this  new  movement  is  one  which 
is  based  upon  the  love  of  law,  and  is  prompted  by  a  real  desire  to 
bring  about  its  reforms  in  an  orderly,  peaceful  and  righteous  manner. 
The  majesty  of  the  law  has  not  lost  its  hold  upon  the  reverence  and 
regard  of  the  people.  All  they  are  asking  so  far  is  that  the  law  shall 
be  so  formulated  and  administered  that  it  may  continue  to  hold  their 
respect.  They  do  not  ask  that  anything  shall  be  torn  down  which  has 
been  built  up  at  such  cost,  but  that  enough  of  it  shall  be  so  changed 
and  altered  that  the  law  may  be  able  to  reach  the  individual  and  re- 
habilitate him,  by  restoring  him  to  his  inalienable  right — the  right  to 
live  his  life  up  to  the  best  of  which  he  is  capable.  And  what  is  this 
but  the  establishment  of  justice  in  its  best  and  truest  meaning? 

And  this  brings  me  in  conclusion  to  what  I  hold  to  be  the  great 
opportunity  of  the  legal  profession,  and  of  lawyers  individually,  in 
the  present  crisis,  which  is  to  reclaim  and  regain  their  old  leadership. 
Gradually,  but  none  the  less  certainly,  the  interest  of  the  people  in 
those  things  which  concern  the  deepest  interests  of  their  social  welfare 
is  being  aroused,  and  more  and  greater  are  the  demands  which  are 
made  for  the  developing  or  the  safeguarding  of  those  interests.  In  all 
these,  many  and  great  are  the  problems  which  are  being  forced  to  the 
front.  Never  was  there  greater  need  for  safe  and  yet  sympathetic 
guides,  such  as  well  learned  and  well  trained  lawyers  might  be;  lawyers 
who  are  statesmen,  not  in  the  old  political  sense,  as  interested  chiefly 
in  the  structure  of  government,  but  statesmen  in  the  new  social  sense; 
men  who  are  able  to  think  in  terms  of  society,  and  to  mediate  between 
the  manifold  and  various  interests;  men  who  are  devoted  to  the  cause 
of  justice,  and  take  seriously  their  calling  as  officers  of  justice;  men 
capable  of  accommodating  right  to  right,  but  who  are  also  capable  of 
making  and  keeping  the  law  clear  regarding  the  responsibilities  which 
inevitably  go  along  with  every  right  and  every  privilege. 

Some  guides  the  people  must  have  or  they  are  simply  going  to 
stumble  blindly  on  trying  first  one  experiment  and  then  another.    Re- 


Relationship  of  Lawyer  to  People 


forms  to  be  safe  and  permanent  must  be  legal  reforms.  Nothing  is  ever 
settled  until  it  is  settled  right — and  right  in  this  nation  means  in  ac- 
cordance with  law,  which  in  its  turn  is  based  upon  and  has  grown 
out  of  the  experience  of  the  past,  and  also  conserves  all  that  is  best 
and  most  sacred  in  our  history. 

Perhaps  it  is  just  here  there  lies  the  trouble  with  much  of  our 
present  reform  legislation  which  few,  I  take  it,  regard  as  satisfactory. 
It  is  not  enough  to  write  a  new  law  on  the  statute  book.  If  it  is  really 
to  accomplish  anything  permanent  it  must  be  based  upon  something 
more  durable  than  a  sudden  passion  or  a  passing  whim  or  fad.  For 
the  law  is  always  only  a  means  to  an  end,  and  not  the  end  itself.  Like 
the  government,  it  is  only  an  instrument  for  tne  well-being  of  society, 
which  will  only  be  really  and  permanently  effective  when  wisely  and 
conscientiously  used. 

There  is,  then,  a  real  demand,  as  well  as  a  pressing  need,  for  the 
return  of  lawyers  to  the  former  prestige  of  leadership,  with  the  added 
knowledge  and  experience  which  their  association  with  the  methods 
and  policies  of  business  in  recent  years  has  afforded  them.  The  very 
fact  that  they  have  gained  this  knowledge  and  experience  by  direct 
association  with  business,  will  make  them  the  more  capable  of  correct- 
ing the  wrongs  and  abuses  which  have  gradually  grown  up  with  and 
out  of  modern  business  conditions.  In  that  event  the  very  thing  which 
has  brought  them  into  discredit  with  the  people,  will  be  the  means  of 
restoring  them  to  a  position  of  honor  and  confidence  among  the  people. 
Gentlemen  of  the  Bar  Association!  If  in  demonstrating  the  fact 
that  leadership  is  the  supreme  duty  of  the  hour,  I  have  emphasized 
that  duty  as  belonging  chiefly  to  you,  it  is  not,  as  I  said  in  beginning, 
it  is  not  because  I  think  it  belongs  only  to  you.  All  who  share  in  the 
privileges  of  society  must  share  also  the  duties  and  responsibilities 
which  go  with  these  privileges.  The  duty  of  leadership  in  the  time 
in  which  we  are  living  seems  to  rest  chiefly  and  most  naturally  upon 
you,  for  the  questions  and  problems  of  the  time  are  so  intimately 
bound  up  with  the  right  establishment  and  right  administration  of 
the  law.  But  a  like  duty  rests  upon  men  of  learning,  men  of  culture, 
men  of  special  training  in  all  the  professions  and  callings  of  life.  It 
is  the  old  principle  of  noblesse  oblige  come  to  life  again.  Every  ad- 
vantage gained  by  training,  every  ability  gained  by  learning,  must  be 
used  not  for  selfish  good,  but  for  the  good  of  all. 

These  are  times  which  call  for  intelligent  interest,  unselfish  sym- 
pathy and  withal  resolute  courage — the  courage  born  of  optimism — 
not  of  the  silly  sort  which  refuses  to  believe  a  thing  even  when  it's 
there,  but  the  kind  which  bravely  faces  the  facts  and  then  sets  itself 
to  deal  with  the  facts. 

We  all  know  there  are  forces  even  now  at  work  which  are  avowedly 
subversive  of  all  law — even  to  the  extent  of  pulling  down  the  old  flag 
all  radiant  with  the  glory  of  victory  after  many  a  hard-fought  battle, 


Rt.  Rev.  Frederick  W.  Keator 


of  peace  after  strife,  and  of  brotherhood  after  alienation  and  estrange- 
ment— running  up  in  its  stead  the  red  banner  of  anarchy  and  hatred. 
Even  these  forces  must  be  recognized  and  dealt  with,  not  with  vio- 
lence, but  by  pointing  out  and  leading  in  a  better  way. 

Still  further  we  need  to  face  the  fact  of  a  general  unrest,  and  with 
patient  and  intelligent  interest  endeavor  to  discover  the  causes,  to  the 
end  that  the  causes  may  be  removed. 

If  the  new  era  which  is  already  upon  us  is  demanding  a  reconstruc- 
tion, it  is  possible  to  hear  and  heed  the  demand  in  such  wise  that  it 
shall  be  indeed  a  real  reconstruction  and  not  a  revolution.  But  if  such 
it  is  to  be,  it  will  be  because  good  temper,  intelligent  interest,  sober 
counsel,  and  earnest  co-operation  of  all  true  and  trained  men  shall 
unite  to  furnish  the  strong  leadership  which  the  solution  of  our  prob- 
lem and  the  advancement  of  our  manifest  destiny  require. 

A  poem  of  James  Russell  Lowell,  called  "The  Present  Crisis,"  bears 
the  date  1844.  Many  of  the  lines  are  still  suited  to  the  present  crisis 
which  is  upon  us  in  this  year  of  grace,  1913.  Let  me  sum  up  the 
message  which  this  address  is  meant  to  bring  to  you  in  the  concluding 
verses: 

"New  occasions  teach  new  duties;  Time  makes  ancient  good  uncouth; 
They  must  upward  still,  and  onward,  who  would  keep  abreast  of  Truth; 
Lo,  before  us  gleams  her  campfires!  We  ourselves  must  Pilgrims  be, 
Launch  our  Mayflower,  and  steer  boldly  through  the  desperate  win- 
ter sea, 
Nor  attempt  the  Future's  portal  with  the  Past's  blood-rusted  key." 


Gayt< 


fay  lord  = 

.PAMPHLET  BINDER    , 

^Z  Syrocute,  N.  Y. 
'  Stockton,  Calif.    I 


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